Безымянный: Сообщения

Безымянный

It will be the next exciting weekend in the IFBB yearly activity: 2012 IFBB World Classic Bodybuilding Championships and IFBB World Cup to be held in Sofia, Bulgaria. Bulgarian Federation Secretary Irena Ilieva send us the list of nominated athletes and this list looks great!
As many as 91 classic bodybuilders from 32 countries were entered, so there will be the next breaking through IFBB record of participation in this kind of championships. Last year there were 73 competitors from 27 countries. First time we will have classic bodybuilders from all 5 continents, so this sport has been progressing and expanding all over the world. Whom will we see on the stage in each category?

Classic bodybuilding up to 168 cm:
The longest ever line-up in this category at the Worlds: 12 athletes. Among them last year’s runner-up Suguru Kamada (Japan), 2012 European champion Osman Colak (Turkey), 2007 Worlds bronze medal winner Gianluca Fiorenti (Italy) and Croatian veteran Robert Horvath, who entered the finals of the last two Worlds but also won the European title in… athletic fitness.

Classic bodybuilding up to 171 cm:
Surprisingly low number of athletes (10) and nobody from the last year’s finals but there will be 2010 world champion Yeon-Seok Yang (Korea), who is going to regain the title after the last year’s failure (7th place). Moreover, the current Europeans runner-up (but from 175 cm class) Antonio Ludovico (Italy) and the Europeans bronze medal winner Ciro Credendino (Belgium). It seems to be an easier category and a good opportunity for new athletes from Iran, Bulgaria, Canada, South Africa and Turkey do jump into the medal zone.

Classic bodybuilding up to 175 cm:
Elimination round will be needed as the number of participants has expanded to 21. Under the absence of 2011 world champion Myung Sub Kim, the main pretenders seem to be: endless runner-up Aleksander Barbashin (Russia), who placed 2nd at the last year’s Worlds and both 2012 Arnolds as well as 2010 Worlds runner-up Andrej Varga (Slovakia). Moreover, four consecutive European champions: Vladimir Kurdov (2009), Tomas Tabaciar (2010), Przemyslaw Zokowski (2011) and Metin Cayci (2012). Category packed with the champions, so entering the finals will already be a success!

Classic bodybuilding up to 180 cm:
The longest category at these Championships, with 25 names. I can’t see the name of the last year’s champion Taavi Koovit but there will be the runner-up Aristidis Nikolopoulos (South Africa) as well as 2010 bronze medal winner Thomas Schnelldorfer (Germany). Plus the two top from the 2012 Europeans: Serhii Gorenkov (Ukraine) and Ali Emre (Turkey) and two-time Europeans runner-up Robert Majewski (Poland). No clear favourite, anyone can win.

Classic bodybuilding over 180 cm:
Still over 20 athletes but no the 2011 world champion Mateusz Kolkowski among them. The runner-up Andrey Lopushanskiy (Azerbaijan) will be there as well as 2010 Worlds runner-up Lubos Malinak (Slovakia) and 2012 Europeans runner-up Drazen Vrbancic (Croatia). And a lot of new names, who knows if the future world champion is not hidden among them?

The 2013 IFBB World Cup will be held upcoming weekend in Sofia, Bulgaria, in conjunction with the IFBB World Classic Bodybuilding Championships. It will include man’s and women’s fitness, women’s bodyfitness (up to 163 cm and over 163 cm), men’s and women’s athletic fitness and… men’s bodybuilding open category.

Especially, this last category will have some top world bodybuilders in the start list. 2011 Worlds 90 kg category runner-up Mehdi Hatami of Iran, who in Mumbai lost only to famous Sami Al-Haddad, will meet legendary Mahmut Irmak, who just won the world title in Ecuador in 75 kg class. 2013 Arnold Europe finalist Atanas Nikolaev of Bulgaria performing in front of his fans will be a tough rival to both of them.

The next category packed with great names is women’s bodyfitness over 163 cm. Recent Women’s Worlds bronze medal winner, charming Olga Karavaeva of Ukraine, will meet the next blond beauty, 2013 Arnold Europe 3rd place winner Renata Marcinkute of Lithuania, as well as 2009 world champion Katarzyna Kozakiewicz-Kowalik of Poland and the next Ukrainian star Tetyana Mikheychyk, who had a very successful 2011 season (1st places at Arnold Amateur and Amateur Olympia) and decided to enter this show in Sofia as her first 2012 event. Olga Stepanyuk of Russia (former European Championships runner-up and Words finalist) and Maria Scotland (2013 Arnold Europe 2nd place winner in masters class) will combat for top places as well.

Finalist of the recent Eastern European Championships Ekaterina Abramova (Russia) and world top master bodyfitness star (two-time 2nd place) Carina Isaksson (Sweden) are the best-known names in bodyfitness short class up to 163 cm.
The other top star, 2013 Worlds and Arnold Europe 3rd place winner Fedir Khashalov of Ukraine will perform in men’s fitness. He will have two demanding challengers: Asian champion Hesam Safiri of Iran and 3rd place winner at the 2012 World Cup Turgay Ates of Turkey.

2012 Arnold Europe men’s athletic fitness winner Kristian Sewen of Sweden will try to set his new personal best in chin-ups and dips.

Having all these top stars on stage, the upcoming IFBB World Cup in Sofia will be a very exciting high-level sport event.